Interior drain cover

[Bubbles121]

Hi all

We're looking at buying a house that has been extended in the last five years and when they did the extension, the bathroom was moved upstairs and the kitchen extended out and an inspection hatch of some sort is in the kitchen. It's made form the same floor as the rest of the floor but is cut out so you can lift it out

Does anyone have experience of this? The house owner said that it was because of the location of the drain run from the other houses on either side - but I just have horror thoughts of a poo covered kitchen floor if it overflows.

Yes, a friend has this. I had the same thought as you!
When we had plans drawn up for our own extension, the architect factored in relocating the existing drain pit to outside of the new room. (We haven't gone ahead with the build yet). I might be wrong but I think he told me that it no longer meets building regs to have it inside (obviously existing ones don't need to be changed but you can't build a new one).

.... especially if it's a shared drain run. What if you neighbour down the fun has a baby-wipe flushing addiction and the sewage backs up? It could block regularly. At least if your own drain you have some control over what goes down it!

They could have moved the drains when they extended. They just didn’t bother because it’s expensive. Was the drainage plan given to the planning authority? Was this approved? I would walk away. If anything goes wrong it’s a big problem.

I lived in a house with this for 7 years. It was extended by previous owners and as others have said I guess it was too expensive to move it outside.

It used to smell sometimes but I limited this with using silicone and mats. Sounds really grim but it wasn't that bad and not constant. Also overflowed once but this was early on when we moved in and I think the previous owner used to flush baby wipes a lot.

Would I buy a house with this again, knowing what I know now? Dunno. I'd certainly do more before I exchanged to understand how clean/new the pipe work is.

Thanks all
The vendor was there yesterday and said the access had to be in the kitchen as they had installed a new soil pipe when they moved the bathroom upstairs (it's a semi detached and the bathroom is against the party wall) and so the only way to join it to the sewer run is to do so via the kitchen and they had to had an inspection chamber. There is only one more house in the run after this one

Building regs signed it off in 2015 so only a couple of years ago, I've checked online and can see that the extension was signed off conditionally but nothing further - so I don't know what the comments may have been.

Ideally we would move it and pay to do so, but does anyone know if that is possible as this is where the toilet meets the sewer line? I think I read somewhere that there has to be an inspection point for a new soil pipe joining a sewer run?

Personally I wouldn't like it.
I will say though, that any reservations you have about a house can often seem worse when you move in. I have done it myself. Thought, "oh well I am sure I'll get over it/used to it", but instead it just annoys you more. So I would say if you are already concerned about it, I would move on.